Harmony Cloud

Understanding harmony is an essential skill for any musician. Harmony is the springboard that elevates melodies to their full emotional potential.

Harmony Cloud™ is a revolutionary step forward in the world of ear training created by world renowned jazz vibraphonist and music educator Stefon Harris, and software entrepreneur and jazz trombonist Clif Swiggett. It is designed to help all musicians, from beginner to professional, expand their ears, deepen their understanding of harmony, and fearlessly explore the world of improvisation. Its underlying (patent-pending) algorithm stitches together chords you select into an unending source of unpredictable, yet musical, chord progressions.

"Listen and Play" lets you immerse yourself in chord progressions and play along with your instrument (or voice). Use it to deepen your intuitive sense of harmony, to practice improvisation, to play by ear, and to improve aspects of your performance including intonation and emotional expressiveness.

"Bass Note Practice" teaches you to identify the pitch of the bass note and recognize bass line movements. Bass lines are the foundation of every chord progression and the more accurately and quickly you can hear the bass note, the better.

"Chord Quality Practice" deepens your emotional and physical connection to chord qualities including major, minor, diminished, augmented, and sus4. You will learn to recognize these qualities intuitively and reflexively.

"Inversions Practice" teaches you to hear the difference between root, first, and second inversions. Inversions are chord voicings that put the tonic, the third, or the fifth of the chord in the bass note. Each inversion is very distinct, beautiful, and has different harmonic tendencies.

"Full Chord Practice" lets you combine three essential skills (recognizing bass note, chord quality, and inversion) to fully identify chords quickly, accurately, and completely by ear.

"Play Chord Pitches" develops your ability to identify each of the distinct notes in a chord. When a new chord plays, use the keyboard to identify each of its pitches.

"Take the Challenge" to test your skill level, go for high scores, and track your progress. Each of the challenges tests one of the essential skills that you've practiced. When you start a challenge, like a musical performance, there’s no stopping, pausing, or restarting midway through. Every challenge is scored. Your scores, as well as other performance stats, are saved so that you can see your progress over time.

Harmony Cloud can be tailored to any musician's or teacher’s needs. Chord progressions can range from very simple I, IV, V progressions to progressions that include hundreds of chords. This makes it easy to learn and grow at your own pace. You have control of all aspects of the music including tempo, volume, sounds, key signature, and much more.

We invite all musicians to install Harmony Cloud. And be sure to visit the Harmony Cloud YouTube channel for instruction and inspiration.